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CTV News
24-05-2025
- CTV News
Ont. man found guilty of murder, attempted murder of OPP officers
Alain Bellefeuille has been found guilty of first-degree murder of an OPP officer, Eric Mueller, and attempted murder of two others in Bourget, Ont. two years ago. CTV's Natalie Van Rooy reports.
CBC
24-05-2025
- CBC
Alain Bellefeuille guilty of murder, attempted murder of police
The man accused of first-degree murder and attempted murder in the shooting of three Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers during a wellness check at his eastern Ontario home has been found guilty on all counts. It was an admitted fact in the case that Alain Bellefeuille killed Sgt. Eric Mueller and injured constables Mark Lauzon and François Gamache-Asselin when he opened fire on them in the early morning hours of May 11, 2023. The officers had been dispatched to his rented rural house in Bourget, Ont., east of Ottawa, after a neighbour called 911 and reported hearing loud noises including shouting and gunfire, followed by silence. At issue during the trial was whether Bellefeuille knew the people entering his home were police, and what his intentions were when he repeatedly fired his rifle over several minutes. Crucial evidence in the case — for the Crown and the defence — came from the body-worn cameras of Mueller, Gamache-Asselin and other officers who arrived after the shots were fired, including then Const. Ionut "John" Mihuta, who arrested Bellefeuille. That footage can be seen in the following stories: Bellefeuille had pleaded not guilty in March when his bilingual trial began in Superior Court in L'Orignal, Ont. — the oldest courthouse in Ontario. Day after day, Mueller's family, dressed in black, and a large crowd of supporters and colleagues of the victims filled the wooden benches on the Crown's side of the courtroom gallery. Lauzon, who suffered life-altering injuries and has not returned to work, attended most days, and his frequent smiles and laughter during breaks stood out in a sea of sombre faces. Gamache-Asselin, who suffered a minor knee laceration and is back at work, occasionally attended. The defence side of the room behind the prisoner's box filled up at key moments, such as on the first day of Bellefeuille's testimony earlier this month, but on most days the proceedings were attended by his sister, mother and aunt. Security was tight. Two cruisers brought Bellefeuille to the small courthouse every day, with a team of special constables accompanying him through the same few entrances and hallways used by the public, jury, judge and lawyers. Two officers guarded the door inside the courtroom, and tactical officers were stationed outside the courthouse. Bellefeuille took the stand in his own defence. He testified he'd been asleep and was woken by his barking dog, flashing lights and banging outside his rented rural home. He said he immediately believed someone was trying to break in, and that he'd been afraid of such an attack ever since friends of his suffered a violent home invasion years earlier. Bellefeuille's defence lawyer Leo Russomanno urged the jury to consider the events from Bellefeuille's perspective, stressing that it all happened over the span of just four minutes — from the time police arrived to the time his client called 911 to report that he'd shot an officer. In the Crown's closing submissions, Tansey called Bellefeuille's actions that night "devastating, calculated and precise." Bellefeuille fired four separate volleys from his high-powered SKS rifle, which was equipped with an illegally modified magazine that could hold 22 rounds instead of the five allowed. He also removed Mueller's body-worn camera, hid it in his pocket, and later threw it into his neighbour's yard. The Crown argued that wasn't the behaviour of someone acting in self-defence, but rather of someone who had committed a "cold and calculated killing." Two of the original 14 jurors were dismissed during the trial: one after the foreperson complained of bullying behaviour by another juror, and the other to preserve public confidence in the justice system after a juror who was running late got a ride to the courthouse with an OPP officer.
CBC
08-05-2025
- CBC
Alain Bellefeuille testifies he suspected intruders before fatal encounter with police
Alain Bellefeuille, accused of murdering an OPP sergeant and attempting to murder two constables during a wellness check gone wrong in 2023, testified Thursday that he woke up that morning to the sound of banging and the shine of a flashlight, and immediately thought there were intruders outside his home. Bellefeuille pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder at the outset of his trial in L'Orignal, Ont., east of Ottawa, in March. It's an admitted fact in this case that Bellefeuille killed Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Sgt. Eric Mueller, critically wounded Const. Marc Lauzon and wounded Const. François Gamache-Asselin when he shot them before dawn on May 11, 2023. Part of what the jury will have to decide, based on Bellefeuille's upcoming testimony and all the other evidence heard at trial, is what he was thinking and what his intentions were when he repeatedly opened fire. Under chief examination in French by defence counsel Biagio Del Greco, Bellefeuille, 41, began his testimony saying he was feeling nervous and anxious to be speaking in front of so many people after his time in custody. He said his father and uncle were hunters, and his father and friends taught him to shoot. He bought the SKS rifle used in the incident for sports shooting at targets on gun ranges and in the woods, and testified weapon wasn't allowed to be used for hunting. By 2023 he'd stopped sports shooting but kept the rifle strictly to protect himself and the house he was renting, he said. He was due to move out of at the end of May that year. It was a big gun, he said — semi-automatic and high-calibre. It can scare people by making a "big enough bang," he said in French, and can do a lot of damage. He bought a linear compensator to help the rifle shoot more accurately at long range. He added after-market rails and a scope with magnification and illuminated crosshairs with adjustable brightness. The scope had no night vision capability. Made magazines illegal in case of emergency He had last loaded the gun more than a year earlier, keeping it at the foot of his bed for quick access. Asked by Del Greco if he knew that was against safe storage rules, Bellefeuille said he took the risk because he lived alone, had few visitors and "the danger was very small that anything would happen." A friend and his partner had been held at gunpoint, tied to chairs and beaten during a home invasion in Kemptville, Ont., in 2007 or 2008, and it made Bellefeuille think it could happen to him, especially in his rural home. His home and vehicle had been robbed in Gatineau, Que., and in North Gower in rural Ottawa, he said. He admitted to modifying magazines to hold more than 20 rounds despite a law restricting capacity to just five rounds. "It was for the ease of having access to bullets if needed," he told court in French. "In an emergency situation I wouldn't have time to reload the gun, so that is why I modified the magazine, to have more capacity. I had more than $10,000 in cash in my house on May 10, 2023." He had bought a motion-activated light for his porch about two or three years before the shooting. In court, he read a Home Depot product listing for a porch light he said looked exactly the same, which could detect motion across 150 degrees and up to nine metres away. The day before the shooting After finishing work at a residence in Orléans on May 10, 2023, Bellefeuille cashed a cheque, went to a hardware store, then went to get gas and 10 to 12 cans of Jack Daniel's whiskey mixed with soda. Court was shown a photo of his kitchen showing two flat boxes of empty cans of the drink. After running errands and talking to people at his new residence about his pending move, Bellefeuille drank with a friend and then at home. He consumed about 10 drinks between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. — a normal amount for him, he testified. He went to bed in his work clothes at about 2 a.m. and fell asleep immediately — also a normal occurrence for him when he drinks and is exhausted, Bellefeuille said. Next came the fatal encounter. Video from Mueller's body-worn camera that was played in court showed Lauzon repeatedly knocking on the back door and window of the house. Bellefeuille told court that the first thing he heard was his dog barking, followed by what he described as more of a "banging" sound than a knocking. He didn't hear voices, but saw what looked like a flashlight. "Immediately I thought it was an intruder who was trying to knock down my back door. It was 2:30 in the morning, nobody announced themselves, nobody warned me or called me," he said in French. He did not look outside.
CBC
07-05-2025
- CBC
Crown ends case against alleged police murderer as accused prepares to testify
WARNING: This story contains disturbing video and graphic descriptions of violence, as well as coarse language. Crown prosecutors have closed their case in the murder trial of Alain Bellefeuile, and now the accused is expected to take the stand in his own defence this week to tell his side of the story. Bellefeuille pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder at the outset of his trial in L'Orignal, Ont., east of Ottawa, in March. It's an admitted fact in this case that Bellefeuille killed Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Sgt. Eric Mueller, critically wounded Const. Marc Lauzon and wounded Const. François Gamache-Asselin when he shot them before dawn on May 11, 2023. Part of what the jury will have to decide, based on Bellefeuille's upcoming testimony and all the other evidence heard at trial, is what Bellefeuille was thinking and what his intentions were when he repeatedly opened fire. CBC has now obtained more video exhibits played in court during the prosecution's case, which closed Tuesday. They show what happened after Mueller and Lauzon were shot, from the perspective of Gamache-Asselin, who was behind them. They also capture part of Bellefeuille's arrest. The Crown's final four witnesses were the surgeon who helped treat Lauzon that night and since, an officer who obtained surveillance video of Bellefeuille cashing a cheque after work the afternoon before the shooting, a forensic identification supervisor who examined all the bullet strikes inside and outside Bellefeuille's house, and a firearms expert. Wounds could have been fatal Last week, Dr. Jacinthe Lampron — a surgeon and medical trauma director of The Ottawa Hospital — testified that she was one of a number of physicians who treated Lauzon when he arrived at the Civic campus trauma unit after the shooting. He'd been shot four times — in his chest, left forearm, groin and abdomen — and it could have been fatal without immediate treatment, she said. His left forearm in particular was bleeding profusely because his radial artery had been transected, Lampron told court. A person Lauzon's size has nearly five litres of blood circulating through their body at any time, she said. That morning, Lauzon was administered about four to 4.5 litres of blood products to replace what he'd lost. Some bullet fragments remain in his body, and more surgeries for his reconstructed left arm are planned, she said. Also last week, OPP Det. Tracy Allan testified that she obtained surveillance video of Bellefeuille cashing a cheque at a Money Mart the day before the shooting, after he finished work at a residential construction site. He was wearing the same clothes and baseball cap that he was arrested in after the shooting. Bellefeuille was intoxicated On Monday, the trial heard an admission that a urine sample was taken from Bellefeuille after his arrest and was tested for toxicology. Four hours after the shooting, the concentration of alcohol in his urine was over the legal limit. Also Monday, OPP forensic identification supervisor William "Tony" Martin took the jury through PowerPoint presentations documenting all the bullet strikes inside and outside Bellefeuille's house. Coloured aluminum rods were placed in the holes to approximate the trajectory of the bullets that had passed through them, and a 3D model was created to visualize it, he testified. Justice Robert Pelletier instructed the jury that Martin had not been qualified as an expert witness, and that the rods he placed in bullet holes can't be taken as evidence of trajectory. The presentation was allowed only as a visual aid to enhance the scene. Bullet strikes were noted in Lauzon and Mueller's cruisers outside, as well as in the mud room, the kitchen, the living room and the bedroom. Illegal magazines could hold 22 rounds instead of 5 Firearms expert Toni Brinck of the Centre for Forensic Sciences testified Tuesday that Bellefeuille's long gun, a common and non-restricted SKS semi-automatic rifle, was outfitted with a scope and an adjustable stock, among other enhancements. Legal magazines can only contain five rounds, but video footage showed Bellefeuille firing nine shots in rapid succession. Brinck testified that some of the magazines found in the house were illegal because they had been modified to hold 22 rounds instead of five. The trigger had to be pulled for each shot, she told court. In cross examination by defence lawyer Leo Russomanno, she said she didn't know if the scope had working batteries when she analyzed the gun, because she didn't test it.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Aurora considering bike plan that recommends miles of new paths
Aurora is considering adopting a new biking plan that would look to dramatically increase the number of bike lanes, paths and sidewalks in the city. The city currently has 'pretty decent biking infrastructure,' but the 2025 City of Aurora's Bicycle Pedestrian Plan proposes expanding that infrastructure to link existing routes and adding sidewalks to every feasible location within the city. That's according to Eric Mueller, a planner at Epstein Global, who presented the Aurora City Council's Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee a brief overview of the plan on April 23. His presentation showed that the plan would recommend nearly 135 miles of new bike infrastructure along with 279 miles of new sidewalks. The plan doesn't propose just a single type of bike path – instead, it specifies eight different types. Some are connected to roads, such as marked bike routes, bike lanes and paved shoulders, while others are not, such as trails. Proposals for bike-friendly policies, programs and procedures, along with pedestrian safety measures especially around intersections, are also included in the proposed plan. Ald. Patty Smith, 8th Ward, said she was 'in awe' of the plan but felt like there was no ceiling, it was just 'everything you could ever want in the biking world.' 'It's a lot of miles. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of great stuff,' Smith said. 'I wish we could call Santa Claus and ask him to show up tomorrow and fix this for us.' According to Mueller, the plan also includes ways to fund the various projects, such as through grants. He said the plan is good for about 10 to 15 years, but 'we'd be kidding ourselves if we expected everything we suggested to get implemented.' Ald. Mike Saville, 6th Ward, said the report was great but the city needs to make sure the plan actually gets implemented. Often, the city pays for plans but then something happens and the city's focus changes, so the plan ends up 'collecting dust on the shelf,' he said. Mueller's presentation at that meeting was a brief overview of the plan, with a more in-depth presentation and discussion expected at the upcoming City Council Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday. But he did show off what he called a feature project of the plan: a proposed connection between the Virgil Gilman Trail and the Waubonsee Creek Trail. While Mueller said the paths would ideally connect along the nearby creek, the city has been unable to speak to the landowner about an easement, so the plan proposes a slightly 'roundabout' path that he said is the second-best option. This connection was the thing Epstein Global heard most from residents, according to Mueller. Public engagement began in 2023, and residents strongly supported improving biking and walking infrastructure throughout Aurora, he said. Aurora's current Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan was adopted in 2009. In 2023, the city selected Epstein to update the plan at a cost of around $50,000, according to past reporting. The 2025 City of Aurora's Bicycle Pedestrian Plan was unanimously approved by the Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee, but it must still go before the Committee of the Whole before going to the Aurora City Council for final approval. rsmith@
